Hi Ladies! Looking for some feedback regarding court ordered mediation. I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. I have been in a situation of domestic violence for approximately three years. Most of the abuse was verbal and emotional, however my husband and I have gotten into 2 physical altercations with very minimal injuries.

When I decided to finally take my son and leave, I did so without informing my husband and I basically disappeared into thin air. I went to another city, I tried to establish our roots there, I went to a domestic violence resource center and got a lot of great information. However, between the time that I left and the time that I was able to get to the domestic violence resource center, my husband had already filed paperwork against me for child abduction. I was able to file my own paperwork with the district attorneys office and show that I had "good cause" to leave the situation. And then I attempted to file a restraining order in the city where I had moved.

However, because I was in a different county and because my husband is a computer hacker, I had to return to the county of origin in order to do my paperwork. My son is five months old currently so when this was all happening he was barely 4 months old and so managing the trauma, attempting to do a restraining order, taking care of a baby, and processing all the grief that comes along with losing your family unit and having to start over was extremely overwhelming emotionally and otherwise.

Flash forward to this week. At this point my husband has been able to get a restraining order against me for domestic violence. He was able to argue to the judge that I was the one who was a danger to him. And the judge granted his request. He was granted sole physical and legal custody. I was given no visitation options. And the restraining order is in place for one year. My lawyer is working on "throwing out" that judgment based on the fact that when I came back to my husband we spent about five days on and off together. And so his opinion that I was a danger to him and my child doesn't make any fucking sense.

So as far as the feedback goes, I'm looking for it with regards to amicable parenting strategies. I don't wanna get into all the other "stuff" associated with this topic. Just wanna focus on how to co-parent an infant and what I can do to appear to be a stable mother to this social worker. I have court ordered mediation in two days. I've thought a lot about how I want to present myself, what I want to say, what I don't want to say, and I just figured if you all were in my shoes how would you approach things? I'd like some specific advice on how to design a parenting plan that makes sense. I would also like advice on how to better navigate the legal system. I do have legal representation however at a court ordered mediation, you do not bring your lawyer with you. I have had a lot of feedback from friends already and I would just like the feedback from the Glow community now. I am happy to answer any questions that any of you might have about more specifics.